The present invention relates generally to rendition style determination apparatus and computer programs for determining various rendition styles (or various types of articulation) to be imparted to tones, voices or other desired sounds in response to user's operation of predetermined rendition style switches. More particularly, the present invention relates to an improved rendition style determination apparatus and computer program which allow a user to given rendition style instructions with increased flexibility by only operating individual rendition style switches.
Recently, there have been known a tone waveform control technique called “SAEM” (Sound Articulation Element Modeling), which is intended for realistic reproduction and control of various rendition styles (various types of articulation) peculiar to natural musical instruments (e.g., Japanese Patent Laid-open Publication No. 2000-122665). In tone generators using the SAEM technique, a plurality of rendition style modules, such as attack-, release-, body- and joint-related rendition style modules, are combined in a time-serial fashion to create a continuous tone waveform. For example, the SAEM technique can produce a waveform of a tone by applying an attack-related rendition style module to a rise portion (i.e., attack portion) of the tone, a body-related rendition style module to a steady portion (i.e., body portion) of the tone and a release-related rendition style module to a fall portion (i.e., release portion) of the tone and then connecting together partial waveforms of individual sections defined by these rendition style modules. Also, the SAEM technique can produce a continuous tone waveform of a plurality of tones where adjacent tones (or tone portions) are interconnected with a desired rendition style using a joint-related rendition style module. Note that, throughout this specification, the terms “tone waveform” are used to mean a waveform of a tone, voice or any desired sound rather than being limited only to a waveform of a musical tone.
Generally, the conventional tone generators using the SAEM technique are arranged to generate a tone waveform by applying a user-desired rendition style in response to user's operation of a predetermined rendition style switch. However, with such conventional tone generators where rendition style instructions are given via predetermined rendition style switches, it is not possible to appropriately instruct a rendition style to be applied to each desired portion, such as an attack, body, release or joint portion, of a tone. Namely, the conventional tone generators present the problem that the user is unable to give rendition style instructions with high flexibility so that there can not be generated tone waveforms faithfully reproducing various rendition styles (or various types of articulation) peculiar to natural musical instruments.
Further, in the conventional tone generators, only one rendition style can be designated at one time by operation of a rendition style switch; thus, when a given rendition style switch is operated and then another rendition style switch is operated in succession, the rendition style instruction by the given (i.e., earlier-operated) rendition style switch is cleared upon operation of the other (i.e., later-operated) rendition style switch. Therefore, separate information, such as a rendition style code, specifying a rendition style instructed by a rendition style switch has to be placed immediately before each performance range (one or more performance events) to which the rendition style is to be applied. Namely, an attack-related rendition style module has to be placed immediately before note-on event timing of each note to which the rendition style is to be applied, a body-related rendition style module has to be placed between note-on and note-off timing of each note, and a release-related rendition style module has to be placed immediately before note-off timing of each note. In addition, it is necessary to separately designate in advance a performance range where each desired rendition style is to be applied. For these reasons, with the conventional tone generators, it has been extremely difficult to instruct a rendition style during a real-time performance.